The Spiritual Snowman: Mythology's Role in 'Oryx and Crake' Arianna Perroots College

In Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Crake takes on the ultimate scientific challenge of recreating humanity. This includes both altering existing behaviors, such as the mating process, and adding new features, such as self healing. Additionally, Crake chose to remove some features from the Crakers such as the knowledge that they will die and the natural institution of the family. Crake also attempts to attempts to rid the Crakers of religious mythology, deeming it useless. However, both with and without the help of Jimmy/Snowman, elements of religion consistently reappear in the Crakers behavior, asserting that believing in a higher power is a natural and essential feature of the human brain.

Crake is notoriously atheistic throughout the book, showing little belief in anything that could be considered a higher power. When altering the human brain to meet his specifications for the Crakers, he sought to remove the part of the brain that was inclined to seek spiritual fulfillment and seek a higher power. Crake explains that “ [he] thought he’d done away with all that, eliminated… the G-spot in the brain. God is a cluster of neurons…” (157). This quote illustrates how little Crake cares for spirituality. It also displays blatant...